Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 17, 1994 TAG: 9404170055
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It's quite a contest, and spring sports will determine the winner, who will be announced at the banquet honoring various Timesland athletes on June 12 at the Holiday Inn-Tanglewood.
For the girls, the race is between Blacksburg's Meredith Braine, George Wythe's Stacy Green, Lord Botetourt's Ashley Moore, Cave Spring's Emily Rakes and Floyd County's Lynette Nolley.
Nolley, in basketball, and Braine, in volleyball, have won the top awards in Timesland for girls. The most versatile athletes, though, might be the other three. Green made the All-Timesland second team in basketball, helped lead Wythe to a Group A volleyball championship and now heads into track, her best sport, where she might win two or three state titles.
Rakes was the top volleyball player in the Roanoke Valley District, and she won the Group AAA indoor title in the high jump. That followed a 1993 outdoor state title. Rakes will be favored to win the state high-jump title again this spring.
Moore was an All-Timesland basketball player, and she made the All-Blue Ridge volleyball second team. She also is an outstanding softball player.
Besides starring in basketball, Nolley made the All-Region C volleyball team. However, she doesn't play a spring sport.
Braine was a starter for Blacksburg's Group AA state championship basketball team. Like Nolley, she doesn't play a spring sport.
Among the boys, the leaders are Patrick Henry's Shannon Taylor, William Fleming's Eddie Jones, Liberty's Gregg Reynolds, Alleghany's Todd Wheatley and North Cross' Marcus Cardwell.
Jones might already have wrapped up this award had it not been for a herniated disk in his neck that slowed him in wrestling and threatens to keep him out of baseball.
Jones was Timesland's offensive player of the year in football. In wrestling, he was headed for top honors in a duel with Northside's Richie Oliver when his neck injury slowed him in the district and regional tournaments and caused him to miss the Group AAA tournament after building a 32-2 record.
That opens the door for Taylor, an All-Timesland pick in football and basketball who made the all-state second team in both sports. Until and if Jones plays baseball, he and Taylor are rated even coming into the spring. That's because Taylor doesn't have a spring sport to finish his bid for Timesland's top award.
Wheatley was All-Timesland in football and made the All-Timesland second team for the second consecutive year in basketball. However, he doesn't play a spring sport for the Mountaineers.
Cardwell made the All-Timesland football team and had four triple-doubles in basketball to make him a long shot for athlete of the year.
Reynolds is the most interesting of the leaders. He is only a sophomore, and he has taken the Sizzlin' Sophomore award in football and basketball - a first for Timesland. He can make it a sweep if he does the same in baseball, and that would put him in the mix to become the first sophomore voted Timesland's top athlete.
Before coaches and fans start telling me who wasn't listed, remember these are just the leaders. Spring sports will play a big part in determining the winners, and because of that, others might emerge to overhaul the leaders.
\ NORTHSIDE WRESTLING: Northside's program might not be hurt as much after all by the resignation of Fred Wagner, the two-time Timesland wrestling coach of the year.
That's because Lord Botetourt coach Mark Agner, regarded as one of Timesland's best wrestling technicians, is the leading candidate to replace Wagner.
Agner, a Northside graduate, also would be an assistant football coach. The biggest problem will be finding a teaching spot for Agner. Schools were unable to settle coaching vacancies until Friday, when all tenured teachers were to make known whether they intended to return to their posts.
\ ALL-TIMESLAND GIRLS: In checking the lists of sophomore girls' athletes in Timesland, I overlooked Cave Spring's Cheryl Rhodes, who started in basketball last season as a freshman. I kept thinking she was a junior. She certainly should have been listed as one of the Timesland sophomores to watch.
Also, when I wrote that Christiansburg's Rebecca McNeil didn't have that high a scoring average in the All-Timesland story, it wasn't meant as a putdown. McNeil averaged 18.2 points and was fifth in the final fall scoring for Timesland. I was trying to point out that had she played on a stronger team without defenses focusing on her, she might have scored more points.
\ ROCKBRIDGE OPENING: Rockbridge County has an opening on its staff after Sherry Wilhelm's resignation as the girls' basketball coach. Wilhelm moved from Natural Bridge to Rockbridge County when the school opened last year. Anyone interested in applying should contact John Reynolds, Rockbridge County's principal.
\ HALL OF FAME: Christiansburg High School is starting a sports hall of fame featuring athletes who were all-state from 1974, when the new school opened. Athletes from sports with no all-state teams are eligible if they made an All-Timesland or an all-region team.
Anyone having information on deserving athletes for the first class of inductees should write Buddy Shull, the school's assistant principal, c/o the Hall of Fame Committee at Christiansburg High School, Independence Boulevard, Christiansburg, 24073.
\ NEW WRESTLING WEIGHTS: When the new National Federation wrestling weights were published April 10, it was not mentioned that these new classes would be optional to state federations for the coming year before becoming mandatory for the 1995-96 school year. However, Larry Johnson, a programs supervisor for the Virginia High School League, said the state's governing body for sports will recommend they be adopted for the coming season.
by CNB